Oral history interview with Robert Winokur
Funding for this interview was provided by the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America.
Archives of American Art 750 9th Street, NW Victor Building, Suite 2200 Washington, D.C. 20001 https://www.aaa.si.edu/services/questions https://www.aaa.si.edu/ Table of Contents
Collection Overview ...... 1 Administrative Information ...... 1 General...... 2 Scope and Contents...... 1 Scope and Contents...... 1 Biographical / Historical...... 1 Names and Subjects ...... 2 Container Listing ...... Oral history interview with Robert Winokur AAA.winokr11
Collection Overview
Repository: Archives of American Art
Title: Oral history interview with Robert Winokur
Identifier: AAA.winokr11
Date: 2011 July 23-24
Creator: Winokur, Robert, 1933- (Interviewee) Riedel, Mija, 1958- (Interviewer) Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
Extent: 7 Items (Sound recording: 7 sound files (5 hr., 35 min.)) 159 Pages (Transcript)
Language: English .
Digital Digital Content: Oral history interview with Robert Winokur, 2011 July Content: 23-24, Transcript Audio: Oral history interview with Robert Winokur, 2011 July 23-24, Digital Sound Recording (Excerpt)
Administrative Information
Acquisition Information This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Biographical / Historical
Robert Winokur (1933- ) is a ceramist in Horsham, Pennsylvania. Mija Riedel (1958- ) is an independent scholar in San Francisco, California.
Scope and Contents
An interview of Robert Winokur conducted 2011 July 23 and 24, by Mija Riedel, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at Winokur's home and studio, in Horsham, Pennsylvania.
Scope and Contents
Robert speaks of his mother earning an award for her artwork; his father and other family members being Communists and having to distance himself in being identified with them; his mother making ceramic jewelry
Page 1 of 3 Oral history interview with Robert Winokur AAA.winokr11 while his father was working as a welder at Cramps Shipyard in Philadelphia during World War II; feeling like he had an attention deficit disorder of some kind, which prevented him from doing well in school, so he took ceramics classes in high school to bring his grades up; starting in painting at the Tyler School of Art, finishing in sculpture, clay, and ceramics; appreciating the Abstract Expressionist work of Franz Kline; of the opinion that one learns art by doing and that the teachers are there to direct you only; feeling that he did not have the freedom to experiment with clay as he wished at Alfred University, School of Art and Design for fear of being compared to Peter Voulkos; his first job teaching at North Texas State University in Denton, Texas; teaching in Peoria, Illinois for a year; beginning Cape Street Pottery in Ashfield, Massachusetts; when he began salt firing and working more in sculptural forms; his work influenced by Abstract Expressionism, Paul Klee, Willem de Kooning, Ignazio Giacometti, Zen master calligraphers, Peter Voulkos, and others; feeling that the computer cannot, as of yet, produce the quality of art that humans can through repetition; that the process of creating is more important than the subject; starting his 30-year teaching career at Tyler School of Art in 1966; that students today are approaching ceramics conceptually and academically rather than through a relationship with the material; the beginning of NCECA [National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts]; and how he enjoys making what he wants to, now that he is retired. Robert also recalls Rudolf Staffel, John Wood, Ted Randall, Daniel Rhodes, Shoji Hamada, Marguerite Wildenhain, Ken Ferguson, Norm Schulman, Victor Babu, Myrna Minter, Don Reitz, Helen Drutt English, Richard Notkin, Dick Hay, Marge Levy, and Ken Vavrek.
General
Originally recorded as 7 sound files. Duration is 5 hr., 35 min.
Names and Subject Terms
This collection is indexed in the online catalog of the Smithsonian Institution under the following terms:
Subjects: Abstract expressionism Ceramic jewelry Ceramicists -- Pennsylvania -- Interviews Ceramics -- Study and teaching Communism Painting -- Study and teaching Sculpture -- Study and teaching World War, 1939-1945
Types of Materials: Interviews Sound recordings
Names: Alfred University -- Students Babu, Victor, 1936- De Kooning, Willem, 1904-1997 Ferguson, Ken, 1928- Giacometti, Ignazio Hamada, Shōji, 1894-1978 Hay, Dick Helen Drutt Gallery
Page 2 of 3 Oral history interview with Robert Winokur AAA.winokr11
Klee, Paul, 1879-1940 Kline, Franz, 1910-1962 Levy, Marge Minter, Myrna Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (U.S.) North Texas State University -- Faculty Notkin, Richard Randall, Theodore, 1914-1985 Reitz, Don, 1929-2014 Rhodes, Daniel, 1911-1989 Schulman, Norman, 1924- Staffel, Rudolf, 1911-2002 Tyler School of Art -- Faculty Tyler School of Art -- Students Vavrek, Ken Voulkos, Peter, 1924-2002 Wildenhain, Marguerite Wood, John, 1922-2012
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